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John Clopton (February 7, 1756 – September 11, 1816) was a
United States representative The United States House of Representatives, often referred to as the House of Representatives, the U.S. House, or simply the House, is the lower chamber of the United States Congress, with the Senate being the upper chamber. Together they ...
from
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
.


Early life and education

John Clopton was born in St. Peter's Parish, near Tunstall, New Kent County in the
Colony of Virginia The Colony of Virginia, chartered in 1606 and settled in 1607, was the first enduring English colonial empire, English colony in North America, following failed attempts at settlement on Newfoundland (island), Newfoundland by Sir Humphrey GilbertG ...
on February 7, 1756. His father was William Clopton (1618–1698) and his mother was Elizabeth Dorrell Ford (1727–1785). He graduated from the College of Philadelphia (now the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
) in 1776. He studied law, was admitted to the
bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...
and practiced.


Military service

He served as first lieutenant and as captain in the Virginia militia during the
American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...
and was wounded at the
Battle of Brandywine The Battle of Brandywine, also known as the Battle of Brandywine Creek, was fought between the American Continental Army of General George Washington and the British Army of General Sir William Howe on September 11, 1777, as part of the Ame ...
.


Career

Clopton was a member of the
Virginia House of Delegates The Virginia House of Delegates is one of the two parts of the Virginia General Assembly, the other being the Senate of Virginia. It has 100 members elected for terms of two years; unlike most states, these elections take place during odd-numbe ...
from 1789 to 1791 and was elected as a
Democratic-Republican The Democratic-Republican Party, known at the time as the Republican Party and also referred to as the Jeffersonian Republican Party among other names, was an American political party founded by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison in the early ...
to the Fourth and Fifth Congresses, serving from March 4, 1795, to March 3, 1799. He was a member of the Virginia Privy Council from 1799 to 1801, and was elected to the Seventh and to the seven succeeding Congresses; during the Tenth Congress, he was chairman of the Committee on Revisal and Unfinished Business. Clopton was a leading proponent of
strict constructionist In the United States, strict constructionism is a particular legal philosophy of judicial interpretation that limits or restricts such interpretation only to the exact wording of the law (namely the Constitution). Strict sense of the term ...
views in the House, standing as one of the few representatives who opposed the
Second Bank of the United States The Second Bank of the United States was the second federally authorized Hamiltonian national bank in the United States. Located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the bank was chartered from February 1816 to January 1836.. The Bank's formal name, ac ...
on constitutional grounds. He served from March 4, 1801, until his death near Tunstall on September 11, 1816; interment was in the family burying ground on his plantation. Future President
John Tyler John Tyler (March 29, 1790 – January 18, 1862) was the tenth president of the United States The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president dire ...
was elected to fill the vacancy caused by Clopton's death.


Personal life

He married Sarah Bacon on May 15, 1784, daughter of Edmund Bacon and Elizabeth Edloe. They had several children: Izard (1785–?), Maria L. Adelaide (1788–?), John Bacon (1789–1860), William Edmund (1791–1848), and Sarah Elizabeth (1804–1843).


See also

*
List of United States Congress members who died in office (1790–1899) The following is a list of United States senators and representatives who died of natural or accidental causes, or who killed themselves, while serving their terms between 1790 and 1899. For a list of members of Congress who were killed while in ...


References

1756 births 1816 deaths University of Pennsylvania alumni Members of the Virginia House of Delegates Virginia militiamen in the American Revolution Virginia lawyers People from New Kent County, Virginia Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Virginia 19th-century American lawyers {{Virginia-Representative-stub